Elephant riding in Thailand has always been a very common activity, but no matter how the Thai locals rationalize this activity, in the era of high animal protection awareness, there are still more and more people refuse to ride elephants. So, now it has become popular to help elephants bathing. Of course, this activity is still being criticized, it is still because of the desire to satisfy people's selfish desires, but it is still an activity that has been arranged. However, as the elephant is afraid of heat and loves to soak in the water to reduce body weight, it's much more humane than carrying tourists on the elephants' backs. And in Maetaeng Elephant Park in Chiang Mai, in addition to bathing elephants, there are other guided commentary, and other activities including cooking food for elephants, and making bark to smear on elephants to remove parasitic. And the most interesting activity is of course to soak in the river with the elephant to help them bathe the back, and wipe the mud with the elephant, and play with the water.
MAETAENG ELEPHANT PARK is the largest elephant camp in Chiang Mai and it is in the MAETAENG Valley. It takes more than an hour to depart from the ancient city of Chiang Mai. Usually you can join the local one-day tour group or charter car. The biggest difference is that the restaurant has different lunch arrangements and different degrees of freedom. The MAETAENG ELEPHANT PARK's tourism program is fixed, and the time sequence is printed on the ticket: elephant show-bathing the elephant-riding an ox cart-riding a bamboo raft-lunch. In this order, the time should be very tight, and lunch should be arranged at 14:00 at the earliest; so you can choose to go there by chartering car, so that you can adjust the order freely, eat lunch first and then take a bamboo raft, and have a leisure time.
The elephants born in Maetaeng Elephant Park have not been trained in whipping since childhood and have been able to grow up beside their mothers. When you come to this elephant park, you can learn about the habits of elephants, and you can feed and play mud baths with elephants. While in close contact with the elephant, there is no harm.
Maetaeng Elephant Park is definitely a beautiful place close to nature. The elephants here are very docile, and you can see all kinds of wonderful performances they bring, such as dancing, playing football, painting, etc., which are very ornamental. You can also lead an elephant through the forest, wade through the mountains and savor off-road fun with the elephants.